Thirty years of heart behind DAAP’s fashion show

What began over 73 years ago and moved to a runway production at the Taft Theatre in 1996 has evolved into a large-scale showcase involving more than 150 people, hundreds of garments and thousands of hours of backstage coordination. Through every venue change, weather disaster and last-minute quick change, Wilson said the mission has stayed the same: to celebrate student creativity.

“This was pure creativity,” Wilson said, remembering the first time she saw student work during a fashion critique at DAAP. “They didn’t have to worry about sales or marketing. It was art.”

Wilson moved to Cincinnati from New York while working for Mercantile Department Stores, where she helped develop the company’s corporate training university after serving as a fashion director in Lexington, Kentucky. While serving on fashion juries connected to UC, she discovered the university’s annual student fashion show and immediately felt connected to it.

When longtime producer Johnna Olsen stepped away from the show after 21 years, Wilson volunteered to take over. Mercantile, which was later obtained by Dillard’s, eventually became one of the show’s first corporate sponsors, helping support what would become a signature event for the university’s fashion program.

Over the years, the production moved from downtown theaters to convention centers, campus buildings, outdoor tents, airport hangars and eventually larger off-campus venues such as Megacorp Pavilion. Wilson remembers years of torrential rain, flooded dressing areas, cicada infestations and runway emergencies that forced the team to improvise in real time.

One year, heavy rain flooded an outdoor backstage dressing room area built behind a giant white tent on campus.

“The drain for the parking garage was underneath the AstroTurf,” Wilson said. “Water was splashing everywhere. Here are all these clothes, and I thought, ‘This is awful.’”

Despite the chaos, Wilson said those moments taught the team how to create ambitious productions with limited resources.

“We learned we could do just about anything with nothing,” she said.

Today, the annual show includes senior collections, professional lighting and stage production, backstage crews, dressers, models and collaborations across campus. This year’s production featured 42 designers, 25 models and 25 dressers. With faculty, technical crews and production staff bringing the total to nearly 150 people to produce the Midwest’s largest collegiate fashion show.

Wilson credits the success of the show not to one individual, but to the community behind it.

“It’s all about the people that surround you,” she said. “It’s about the people that commit to your vision.”

That philosophy extends backstage, where Wilson prioritizes creating a supportive environment for students and volunteers alike.

“I have a plaque in my office that says, ‘It’s a rare person who can take care of business and take care of hearts at the same time,’” she said. “That’s always my goal.”

Among the show’s most memorable moments was the 2018 production, which Wilson called her personal favorite. That year marked her daughter’s graduation from UC, her son earning his doctorate and the retirement of longtime collaborator Robert Probst. The production also became part of commencement weekend after severe rain forced doctoral hooding ceremonies indoors. Overnight, crews transformed the fashion show stage into a graduation venue before rebuilding the runway in time for the next evening’s show.

“It was our last show in the massive Campus Recreation Center partnering with CCM, and my son got hooded on our fashion show stage,” Wilson said. “That’s a moment I’ll never forget.”

Wilson said the event has become more than a runway show. It serves as a platform for students, families and the broader Cincinnati creative community.

“I want the world to know who we are and what we can do,” she said.

Even after 30 years, Wilson still sees new possibilities for the future of the production, including immersive digital environments and greater national visibility for the program.

“If I had a wish for the show,” she said, “it would be more notoriety outside Cincinnati.”

For Wilson, however, the heart of the production remains unchanged from the moment she first saw student work decades ago.

“It really is for them,” she said. Each year, she opens the runway season with the same message to students: “You make the best collection, and we’ll make it part of the best event.”

Learn more about DAAP fashion shows.

Photos provided by Laurie Wilson. 

Featured image at top DAAP fashion show runway 2026.